This is an interesting story I found, actually more sad than interesting. Written by Hemanshu Nigam (used to be the Myspace Chief Security Officer and then started his own company – good guy), he gives a short commentary on the impact of online media and teen suicide. There are places of help at the end of the piece.

Look folks, the bottom line is this – we, as parents, have the duty and obligation to know how your young children (meaning under the age of 18) are using that internet we supply them with. It is just as much up to us to make sure they are being safe and not talking to predators, as it is to make sure they are not using the internet as a weapon to destroy the life of someone else.

The statistics vary on the percentage of victims that will tell their parents when they are being cyberbullies… but one statistic is undeniable and absolute: 100% of bullies NEVER tell their parents what they are doing. So it is up to us to find out.

If you cannot prove your child is not a cyberbully, then you are not doing your job as a 21st century parent. Plain and simple. And the first parents to say “not my kid, he/she would never do that” are usually the ones with bullies operating in secret in their homes, right under their noses.

Be a parent. Use PC Pandora monitoring software to know if your child is a cyberbully… or talking to a predator… or doing anything else dangerous or stupid on the internet…

In the wake of 12-year-old Gabrielle Molina’s suicide late last month, devastated parents and startled communities are seeking answers for how to best protect children and teens from the pressures of cyberbullying and digital harassment. Molina, a repeated victim of aggression from peers at school, also may have dealt with recurrent bullying online. A video of Molina fighting another student worked its way onto YouTube before her death, and Molina made reference to cyberbullying events in a suicide note left behind before she hanged herself in her home in Queens Village.

According to a preliminary report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 38,285 deaths were attributed to intentional self-harm in 2011, which represented the 10th leading cause of death for the year. During the same year, the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey found that 16% of high school students experienced some form of digital bullying within the past year.

Clearly, the pressures children and teens face online are more considerable now than in years passed. Victims are often unable to separate themselves from bullies who are just a click away online. Hateful text messages and the spreading of inappropriate content on social media, cell phones and video websites also represent serious concerns for parents, law enforcement agencies and educators. In addition to intentional aggression, today’s young people are also more aware when they are left out of social events due to real-time updates on Facebook. [READ FULL STORY]

This entry was posted
on Thursday, June 13th, 2013 at 10:50 AM and is filed under Main.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.